◎魏國金
An astonishing golden outfit made from the silk of spiders goes on display at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on Wednesday, the largest example of the material in the world.
一件由蜘蛛絲製成、令人驚奇的金色服裝在週三於倫敦的維多利亞與艾伯特博物館展出，這是全世界最大的蜘蛛衣樣本。
The four-metre-long hand-woven textile, a natural vivid gold colour, was made from the silk of more than one million female Golden Orb spiders collected in the highlands of Madagascar by 80 people over five years.
這襲長4米、有著自然鮮明金色色彩的手工織品，是由逾100萬隻雌大金蛛的蛛絲製成，這些蜘蛛是80個人於5年間，在馬達加斯加的高地區採集來的。
It was made by Englishman Simon Peers and American Nicholas Godley, both of whom have lived and worked in Madagascar for many years, and inspired by 19th century illustrations detailing the largely forgotten art.
它是由英國的皮爾斯與美國的高德利聯手打造，兩人都在馬達加斯加生活、工作多年，而且受19世紀、詳述此廣泛被遺忘的藝術之圖解而啟發。
The last known spider silk textile was created for the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900, but no examples remain.
已知上一件的蜘蛛絲織品是於1990年，為了巴黎世界博覽會而創作的，不過並沒有留下樣本。
The spiders are collected each morning and harnessed in special contraptions which allow handlers to extract their silk, 24 spiders at a time. At the end of the day, the spiders are returned to the wild.
這些蜘蛛是每天早晨採集來的，並將之置於特製機械，該器材讓操作者1次可以抽取24隻蜘蛛的蛛絲。而一天結束後，這些蜘蛛被放回荒野。
The process is extremely laborious -- on average, 23,000 spiders are needed to create about one ounce of silk, according to the V&A. The textile is on show at the museum from January 25 to June 5.
整個過程極度費勁—平均2萬3000隻蜘蛛才能生產出約1盎司的蛛絲，根據V&A博物館指出。這個織品從1月25日至6月5日在該博物館展出。
新聞辭典
on display︰展覽、陳列。例句︰The goods were on display in the store window.（商品陳列在商店櫥窗裡。）
harness︰動詞指利用、控制、駕馭。也可用為名詞，in harness指在工作中。例句︰Both his sons are in harness.（他的兩個兒子都在工作。）
contraption︰新發明、奇妙的機械。例如︰a newfangled contraption（新發明的小玩意。）
此文轉貼自自由時報電子報
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